Toward a Hygienic Environment for Infants and Young Children: A Review of the Literature

The Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene Partnerships and Learning for Sustainability (WASHPaLS) project is a 5-year task order awarded to Tetra Tech in September 2016 under the United States Agency for International Development’s (USAID) Water and Development Indefinite Delivery Indefinite Quantity Contract (WADI). The USAID/WASHPaLS project prepared a review of the scientific and gray literature to capture the state of knowledge of the health risks to infants and young children (IYC) from fecal exposure in their home environments and focus on historically underemphasized sources and transmission pathways not disrupted by the traditional suite of WASH measures.

The review considered human and animal fecal contamination and the pathways presenting exposure risks to IYC; examined technological and behavioral interventions to disrupt the transmission pathways as well as interventions that address the underemphasized pathways; and identified areas of priority for implementation research to address the issue of clean play spaces for infants and young children.